I prefer a 10 turn nail knot for leader to line when the line and core can carry the strain - most braided cores O.K. I generally use 11-12 foot leaders including bite tippit in the Fl surf for snook. The ocean where I live is mostly like a pond and the snook are spooky. My problem with this is that when it's blowing 10-12 from the East I cannot turn over the leader even with a 10wt. I know if I went down to a 5-6 foot leader system - which would be O.K. in a real surf - I would be O.K. BUT I would then have to tie a new nail knot with a shorter leader OR keep the nail knot and go loop to loop from the butt to the rest of the leader and I think loops cause some wind drag and loss of efficiency. And this is my question: while handy, do you think multiple loops-to-loops in a leader causes wind drag - shortens the cast? The reason I think it might is that I now remove the 3D eyes from my EP flies and epoxy on flat holographic eyes, and the difference in casting is dramatic.